How long is the waiting line for customer service? This app tells you in real time.

Jaimeattendre.com just released a free iPhone app called “02 minutes d’attente” that tells you when the peak hours are for customer services, shops, museums and administrations.

Additionally, it lists contact information for large enterprises – including the ones that take pains to bury phone numbers deep inside their website to prevent you from calling them (too expensive). As a user says:

“Thanks to your app, I found the goddamned DHL customer service phone number that you can’t find anywhere on their site in well under two minutes”

Currently, the app lists 1200 points of sale.

As far as we can tell from the app page in the App Store, the app gauges waiting time through a combination of real time crowdsourcing (in human language: a button that asks “how long have you been waiting in this line?”) and information on peak hour customer service traffic supplied by the points of sale or administrations themselves.

The startup raised € 200 000 in October 2011 from business angels active in customer relations and web. It generates income through partnerships with points of sale who want to save money – providing extra staff to handle peak traffic is expensive, especially if you have to keep paying them when there’s no traffic at all an hour later. Another part of the business model is based on advertising revenue and a partnership with an e-ticketing service.